


Tiny Howls and Big Problems

by NaomiJameston



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Babies, F/M, HEA, I PROMISE THIS TIME, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27312208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NaomiJameston/pseuds/NaomiJameston
Summary: Severus and Hermione have just welcomed some new additions to the family and realized that sometimes, research doesn't reveal everything, curses may be blessings in disguise, and you should always trust your enemies to act.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24
Collections: SSHG Spooktober Fest 2020





	Tiny Howls and Big Problems

**Author's Note:**

> As always, any recognizable character is not mine and instead belongs to the copywrite owners. I am making no profit and am only writing for fun. 
> 
> This is a WIP and as I am the slowest writer in the world, please don't expect frequent updates. Sorry!
> 
> Many thanks to my amazing betas CRMediaGal and Hellofauniverse, without whom I would have been lost 100 words in. This fic was inspired by the phrase "tiny awoos" and was originally a drabble (posted at the end). 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

The house was quiet. A low light glowed in the kitchen, adding a faint yellow reflection to the clean countertops. The dishes dripped quietly above the sink and baby bottles were propped up on their rack. The clock on the wall showed five tiny pictures, all pointing at “Home”. The Muggle clock below it shone with blue light: 3:07am.

Hospital pamphlets lay scattered on the dining room table and discarded shoes sat underneath, one fallen to its side. The pamphlets fluttered in the breeze that came through the open window in the dark kitchen, and one flipped until it slid off the table. Catching on a shoe, it fell open to display a smiling witch holding a newborn baby. She winked and pointed to the words: “And don’t forget! If you ever have a problem or a question, contact the St. Mungo’s maternity ward through your Floo. We’re always available!”

The only other light came from behind a closed door in the upstairs hallway. A mobile spun gently above an oversize crib, its gentle notes in stark contrast to the anguish in the eyes of the mother standing next to it. 

Hermione Snape, née Granger, reached out a hand to catch the mobile and the song stopped with a discordant squeak. She released it, pulling her bathrobe tighter around her waist, still gently rounded from recent childbirth. Tears gathered in her eyes and her teeth worried at her lip. 

“Have you found anything?” she whispered. Severus Snape’s hair stood up almost as wildly as his wife’s as he flipped a page on one floating book before turning to reference another. The pages were covered in notes and scrawled words from across the ages- one transcribed by a monk in the 14th century, complete with grandiose lettering and illustrated inscriptions; another nothing more than spiral bound printed pages from a website. And they all had pictures of werewolves.

“There’s nothing.” Severus flicked his fingers and the books closed with a snap and stacked themselves on the nightstand by the rocking chair. He pulled his wife into his arms, pressing her face into his chest to quiet her sobs. “Not a single scrap of written evidence that this curse is genetic. I- I’m sorry.”

He looked into the crib sadly, his own eyes wet with tears, and he pressed a kiss into his wife’s curls.

In the crib, one of the sleeping puppies shifted, lifted its head, and howled. The two others- his siblings- followed suit, their tiny puppy chorus rising to a crescendo and covering their parents’ sobs.

~~~~~

“I had no idea the two of you were werewolves,” Remus Lupin said, rocking a newborn human baby and smiling at her ineffectual flails. She suckled furiously at the bottle, pausing only long enough to yell at Remus when he shifted his grip and knocked the nipple out of her mouth. Sunlight streamed through the open window and a light breeze played with the curtain. The room was bright and airy, all trace of the previous night’s grief cleared away. 

“I’m surprised that you had children at all, let alone three-” he continued.

“I performed copious amounts of research before we decided to follow that path, Lupin,” Severus sneered, feeding another newborn. This one – a boy– was fast asleep and only suckling out of reflex. Severus slid the bottle from his mouth gently, his lips curling into a reluctant smile as the baby continued to suckle on air. 

“We hadn’t found any evidence of lycanthropy being a genetic condition, so we thought we would be safe.” He sighed ruefully as he lifted the baby to his shoulder to burp. “The fact that we had triplets should have been an indication, but when Alder, Ash, and Aster were all born healthy, we didn’t think… well. We were a little overwhelmed just trying to name them.”

Remus chuckled, but before he could voice his thoughts, his son Teddy burst into the room.

“Dad!! They have werewolf puppies! How come they got to be puppies but I didn’t? I wanna be a puppy!” Remus sent an apologetic glance at Severus, whose son Ash had been startled by Teddy and had begun squalling. 

“Theodore,” he said sternly. The boy’s shoulders dropped and his hair changed from its bright, happy blue to a dull brown.

“I’m sorry,” he said with the overly dramatic air of a child reciting an oft-repeated lesson. “I know I shouldn’t wish to be anything but what I am.”

“That is true,” Severus said, lifting Ash to his shoulder and patting him gently. The baby’s screams calmed quickly until he only snuffled occasionally. “And besides, we really aren’t sure how this happened, Teddy. This appears to be a… unique situation.”

“You–yoooooou–?”

“Unique,” Severus repeated, standing to carry the nearly sleeping baby to his crib. “It means one of a kind.”

Teddy watched Severus tend to the baby, his eyebrows pulling together as he thought. “But you have three of them?”

“We don’t mean that the babies are unique,” Remus chuckled, standing to bring the now-full newborn to his shoulder. She belched loudly, then cooed as though innocent. He couldn’t help but chuckle and lifted her to cuddle into his chest when Hermione came in.

“She’s not done, Remus,” Hermione said, tucking the swaddle more firmly around the little boy she carried. Alder’s hair was still wet from his bath, but his eyes were closed and he sighed in his sleep. “Aster likes to wait until you’re complacent and-”

The girl belched again and brought up a good portion of her bottle all over Remus’ shirt. Teddy jumped back with a yelp, his hair flashing red with alarm, but Remus only shook his head.

“I should have expected that. Teddy used to do the same thing.” He handed Aster to Severus who had finished swaddling his baby and was ready with the girl’s swaddle. She didn’t look the least bit tired- or sorry- but Severus’ shoulders drooped and his eyes were even more sunken than usual.

“I have never done that a day in my life,” Teddy said archly, his nose wrinkled in the disgust that only a seven-year-old boy can express fully. His father winked at him.

“Oh yes you did. Every single day until I learned better.” He waved his wand to banish the mess and cleared the air in the room, leaving it fragrant only with baby powder. The babies were all swaddled in their crib with plenty of room between them, the boys already completely asleep. Aster watched Remus with the uncomfortable focus of a newborn before she yawned and fell asleep as well. He huffed a laugh. “It’s nice to know that babies are babies, no matter the genus.”

“Do you-” Hermione started but a yawn nearly cracked her jaw in half and interrupted. “Oh, excuse me! You don’t think they’re a different species, do you?”

“No, I suppose not. Werewolves are generally human before they’re turned, so unless wizards are a subspecies-” Remus had started pacing as he began to lecture, but Teddy tugged on his sleeve and pointed to Severus and Hermione. They’d slumped together in the vacated rocking chair, Severus’ arms firmly around his wife and his foot pushing the chair automatically. Hermione snored gently. 

“Should we… move them?” Teddy asked. Remus shook his head.

“No, let them sleep.” He summoned a soft blanket and draped it over them. “In the meantime, why don’t you Floo home and see if Mummy is back? If she is, ask her to come over.”

“Are we going to help them, Daddy?”

Remus nodded. “Of course we will. I just need to contact a few old friends.”

**Author's Note:**

> The original drabble:
> 
> Hermione blinked once, twice, and a third time. She removed her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and replaced them. But the chaos in the crib remained the same.  
>  “Severus,” she said, her voice calm despite the rising panic in her chest, “how did this happen?”  
>  Beside her, her husband flipped through numerous potions texts, herbologists’ journals, curse removal scrolls, and even the diary of an ancient werewolf, possibly the first in the world.  
>  “I haven’t read anything about this. The curse isn’t genetic.”  
>  Roused from slumber by their father’s panic, one of the tiny transformed werewolf puppies gave the tiniest “awoo!”


End file.
